


Helianthemum

by Jellyfish_Tacos



Category: Yuri!!! on Ice (Anime)
Genre: Angst, Character Death, Fairy, Fairy Tale Elements, Fantasy, Gardens & Gardening, Immortality, Long Hair, Long-Haired Victor Nikiforov, M/M, Magic, Mythology - Freeform, Sacrifice, Sad Ending, Spirits, Transformation, Whimsy, Witch Curses
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-01
Updated: 2019-07-01
Packaged: 2020-05-31 15:44:19
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 3
Words: 3,082
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19429069
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Jellyfish_Tacos/pseuds/Jellyfish_Tacos
Summary: Viktor is an immortal spirit of light whose heart has been captured by a gentle human gardener. This gardener, Yuuri, is afflicted with a fatal curse that will soon take effect, and Viktor is willing to pay any cost to save him.





	1. Candles in the Dark

The candles floating on Yuuri’s koi pond glimmered, the only illuminant (besides Viktor) on this moonless, cloudy night. Yuuri watched them flickering in their little glass spheres that had the tops cut out. Their flames were gentle and orange, small salamander tongues licking the darkness.  
Yuuri suddenly felt a chill, and leaned in closer into Viktor. He pulled their blanket more tightly around the both of them. The late summer night was pleasantly cool, especially after the scorching, unrelenting heat that had swept over the land over the past couple days. However, the occasional breeze that rippled through the air tipped the temperature into uncomfortable territory.  
It was alright, though. Yuuri had his love to keep him warm. Being an incandescent spirit of light, Viktor emanated warmth like a constantly burning hearth. His long, slender arms encircled Yuuri as he sweetly sang mystical lullabies in an ancient language that Yuuri did not understand. His voice was smooth and quiet, tongue forming other-wordly syllables that Yuuri could never make.  
Yuuri looked up at him, admiring how his skin glowed. Without the sun’s energy, Viktor’s shimmering aura was subdued. The firelight cast shades of rich amber onto his features. His silvery hair swept around the both of them, silky and thick. At one point Makkachin had also been with them underneath the blanket, but she had wiggled out from under it and chose instead to lie at the water’s edge. She was sleeping soundly, her torso rising and falling rhythmically and her curly brown fur shifting beneath the wind’s touch.  
Everything seemed so serene, so (( normal, )) as they rested there in the grass. But it was merely a veneer on the surface- a lagoon with sinister jagged rocks in its navy blue depths.  
“How much longer?” Viktor asked softly. The question lingered in the air despite its weight. To an outsider, it would seem ambiguous. How much longer until what? Until they went back inside? Until sunrise? But Yuuri knew immediately. It was the same subject that had been lurking in their minds for a very long time.  
Yuuri’s chest tightened.  
“Three days,” Yuuri said, staring at the pond. The peaceful image became blurry, and he removed his spectacles to wipe tears away. He was trying not to panic thinking about the fate that awaited him, but that was, frankly, an impossibility. Viktor was silent for a while, but Yuuri felt him embrace him more tightly, as if he was afraid that loosening his hold would cause Yuuri to vanish. He wasn’t sure what he could even say to offer some semblance of comfort.  
“It’s alright, my flower. I’m-” He blinked away water droplets. “I’m only a human anyways...” Afterall, compared to a being as resplendent and eternal as Viktor, how insignificant he was and how little value he held.  
“Yuuri,” Viktor said in a broken voice, and Yuuri regretted his words instantly. He should not have said that out loud. “You are so precious to me.” Yuuri’s heart ached. He wasn’t ready to say goodbye. If only he could buy more time somehow. How quickly it had flown by. He softly touched Viktor’s cheek, his fingers soaking up heat.  
“I’m sorry,” he said, looking off at Makkachin’s sleeping form. He was apologizing for hurting Viktor, but he still believed what he’d said. Viktor was immortal, living as long as the sun beamed down from the sky. The worth of Yuuri’s own mortal life was minute. Yuuri felt blessed to hold his attention, his affection, his love for even a fraction of that time.  
Yuuri absentmindedly took a lock of Viktor’s hair from where it draped over his thigh and slowly ran his fingers through the tresses.  
“Let’s enjoy what we have left. These three days,” Viktor finally said. Yuuri nodded.  
“Mm,” he replied. Suddenly, Viktor twisted and from the pocket of his gossamer dress he withdrew a shining golden band. He took his other arm from around Yuuri’s waist and delicately picked up his rough, tanned hands in his own pale and slim ones. He slipped the bracelet onto Yuuri’s wrist, where it rested with a comforting weight. Yuuri caught his breath as he watched, eyes once again brimming with tears. He blushed happily, heart swelling to the point of cracking into pieces. The gold was carved with intricate wisteria blossoms dripping from the top edge. Viktor procured a matching one that was etched with sunroses and slipped it onto his own wrist. The metal glinted from his glow and the soft candlelight.  
Yuuri could no longer keep his tears at bay, and they trickled down his cheeks. Shakily, he took Viktor’s hand in his own and intertwined their fingers. Nothing needed to be said. He knew the promise that this meant, but… forever was a long time. Would Viktor’s soul still belong to him even after his impending preordination? Or would he be forgotten? The thought of Viktor loving somebody else, a faceless stranger in the future, was distressing. But even worse was a lonely Viktor, grieving for eternity or until the sun went dark.  
Viktor kissed his tears away, easing his worries enough to lull him to sleep.  
By the time the sun rose, the morning dew had extinguished all of the floating candles.


	2. Diamond Tears

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Viktor, desperate to cure Yuuri, seeks out a magic-weaver in the hopes of striking some sort of deal to save his love's life.

Nothing was going to cause harm to Yuuri.   
Viktor was prepared to face (( any )) danger, pay (( any )) price, to keep Yuuri’s fate from brushing him aside like how one carelessly sweeps a withered fallen leaf out of the house. Yuuri was worth far more than that. Throughout his 468 years, Viktor had fallen in and out of relationships time and time again- each one more fleeting and meaningless than the last. Their faces were blurs, their time together fragments of laughter or half-recalled, once-intriguing stories that he couldn’t attach to names for the life of him. Most of them were good people, but Viktor’s memory was so poor that if he saw one of them on the streets, he doubted he would recognize them. Although, he thought with a shiver, most of them had to be dead by now. Were they decaying, or perhaps completely skeletonized? How frighteningly fast a human’s life slipped through their fingers.  
Yuuri was not the same as the others, although it had seemed that way at first. Once they grew closer, once they opened up to each other, there was no going back to his previous way of life. For Viktor’s kind, there was only one. And despite the circumstances, despite the mere five years they had spent (and would be alloted to spend) together, he knew that there would never be anybody else. Fate was an unjust and merciless mistress, but her dominion over all could not be denied.   
Viktor adjusted his cloak so that it covered more of his arms. He didn’t need it for warmth, but instead used it to mask his luminescence from passerby. The misty early morning obscured details, but his aura would refract on the water in the air in a hard-to-miss rainbow. Normally he adored being the center of attention, but this mission was infinitely more important. The stone road felt smooth beneath his bare feet, worn from centuries of wagon wheels and pedestrians. His pace was quick, but just moderate enough to not garner any unwanted curiosity; he couldn’t afford to waste a second more than necessary. He had to return before Yuuri awoke, and they were running out of time anyways.   
Viktor, ever forgetful, made several frustrating wrong turns and had to backtrack and reorient himself. Finally, he reached the correct place (at least he hoped it was). He slipped between two abandoned buildings and into the shadows. His skin cast golden light like a lantern onto the vibrantly green moss-covered walls on either side of him, pushing away the darkness. Once he was certain that he was out of sight from the street, he broke into a run. He continued for what felt like eons; the only sounds echoing on the walls were his heavy breathing, his feet smacking against the wet cobblestone, and the dripping of water. His heart was racing in his chest- simultaneously excited, hopeful, and terrified. There was light up ahead, and he was filled with a burst of energy that propelled his legs faster. It grew brighter and brighter.   
Viktor suddenly skidded to the halt, the unforgiving ground scraping his feet. He stood on the precipice of a round courtyard that was tiled in a rainbow of chipped mosaic shards. Featured in its center was a crumbling mermaid fountain that hadn’t bore water in a very long time. Enclosing the courtyard were tall buildings that stretched so high that they cast the whole area in shadow. Their vast, flat surfaces were unbroken by windows besides a single one-by-one square with shattered glass, opposite Viktor. The buildings loomed over him, a ring of overcast sky far above.   
Sat on the base of the fountain was a figure wrapped head to feet in ornate robes, every bit as still and eerie as their surroundings. Viktor bit his lip and hesitated a moment before closing the distance between them. He dropped to his knees before them, head bowed. His hair curled on the tiles around him.   
“Please,” he appealed. “I need your help.”   
There was no response from the other, not even a single twitch to indicate that they’d heard Viktor at all. His whole body trembled in desperation.   
“My love is afflicted with a curse. It will take effect in less than three days.” Rare, radiant tears beaded in his eyes. When he blinked they scattered onto the mosaic and solidified into sparkling diamonds. “I beg you, tell me what must be done, and I will do it.”   
Silence persisted, and Viktor stared down at the fallen jewels. His lips were slightly parted, and he pressed them into a firm line as more diamonds clattered and joined the others. He tried to rack his brain for somewhere else he could turn, anything- but this was all. The other magic-weavers had withdrawn from the world long before this one, and he had no inkling of where he could find them.   
Then an androgynous voice as wispy and ephemeral as smoke began to drift through the courtyard.   
“Helianthemum, child of the sun- you would pay any cost?” Viktor’s head lifted at the sound, but the figure remained statuesque amongst their elaborate brocade finery. Not even the red silk scarf wrapped tightly around their entire head shifted.   
Viktor ran his fingers over the bracelet around his wrist.   
“Without question,” he said firmly.


	3. Your Flowers

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Yuuri and Viktor try to make the most of the last days they have left together, and Viktor prays that he has done enough to save his love.

Viktor spent the rest of those three days with his beloved Yuuri. He couldn’t bear to miss a single thing. They cooked extravagant meals together, recipes that they’d never tried. Makkachin, oblivious to the situation, wagged her tail as she sniffed around their feet for food. Viktor wove flowers from Yuuri’s garden into chains that were too long to even be used for anything, while Yuuri tenderly brushed Viktor’s hair and plaited it into complicated patterns. Makkachin frolicked under the shade of the trees and did her best to protect Yuuri’s expansive garden from squirrels. This was a difficult undertaking, considering that Yuuri’s cottage was nestled in a clearing of squirrel-infested woods. Yuuri and Viktor told each other secrets that they never had before, embarrassing stories and abandoned wishes alike.   
Although they were doing seemingly mundane things, there was a sense of urgency hovering over them, heavy on their shoulders. It was cruel, experiencing this daily life together that they had shared for not nearly long enough. It was only theirs for these three days longer.   
Two nights before their last sunset, Viktor was lying on Yuuri’s chest and listening to his heartbeat. It fluttered so delicately, like a small butterfly. He gently kissed the tan skin there, feeling his pulse lightly against his lips. Yuuri, who Viktor had assumed asleep, opened his eyes lazily to look at him.   
“Hm?” he asked sleepily. Viktor laughed softly at the endearing sight, and Yuuri gave him a small smile before drifting off. He kissed him again on the same spot the next night, making certain that Yuuri was really unconscious this time.   
On the last night, Viktor lied awake in deep thought. (( If only that old witch hadn’t been jealous of your garden. )) It was too late now. How unfair, that Yuuri’s only crime had been to have beautiful flowers.   
The final day dawned. They went through the same routine, with breakfast and singing and feeding the koi in Yuuri’s pond. But the foreboding was palpable in the air. Viktor could see that Yuuri was trying to put on a brave face, but he saw tears keep leaking from his eyes. Yuuri kept stumbling, coughing, and clutching at his chest. Every time, Viktor would swoop in, gather him up in his arms, and kiss his face until he smiled, but it was all in vain. A charade.   
The sun began to descend in the sky, and Viktor glared up at it for the first time in his life. (( Can’t you stay, mother? Just for a little longer? Do you not realize what you’re doing? )) His heart sank with her.   
Viktor helped Yuuri outside. Makkachin, now discerning that something was amiss, whined pitifully. They closed the door and trapped her in the house so that she didn’t have to experience what was coming. Yuuri’s breathing was shallow and ragged, reminding Viktor of the rustle of walking through a pile of dessicated leaves.   
Yuuri looked up at Viktor, but his eyes weren’t focusing. He was so fragile in Viktor’s arms, unable to even stand on his own.   
“V-Viktor,” he rasped, breaking into a violent hacking fit. Viktor could not wait a moment more. Determined, he began unbuttoning Yuuri’s shirt. The left side of Yuuri’s chest was swollen and scarlet, with greenish-brown, sickly veins webbing out from the center. They throbbed, growing thicker and more pronounced with each heartbeat. Viktor recoiled at the horrific sight; it was already so much worse than he’d imagined. He shouldn’t have waited so long, but he didn’t think it would work if he tried too early. He swiftly leaned down to kiss that same spot for the third and final time. He stared at it, waiting for something to happen. Nothing did. He was overwhelmed with confusion and panic. He’d done exactly as instructed, why-   
then, an agonizing pain in his chest, like someone had thrust their hand into his ribcage and was squeezing his heart in their fist. He grunted, wincing. Yuuri had collapsed to the ground and was staring up at Viktor in sheer horror. Between the folds of his blue shirt, Viktor could see that Yuuri’s chest was now unscathed aside from a lingering, slightly reddened patch.   
“Viktor,” Yuuri sobbed pathetically, and it was the single most heart-wrenching thing that Viktor had heard in all of the 468 years that he’d been alive.   
Viktor gave a faltering smile, then bent down and placed a hand on one of his precious Yuuri’s cheeks.   
“It was the only way.”   
Tears poured from Yuuri’s swollen eyes. He gritted his teeth and squeezed his eyes shut, shoulders heaving.   
“(( Why? )) ” he cried. “I’d already accepted my fate!”   
Viktor’s limbs were becoming heavy and his joints grew stiff. He bowed his head, searing pain coursing through every fiber of his body in waves of serrated blades.   
“I couldn’t let you die.”   
Yuuri staggered to his feet and began to claw at the seed now implanted on Viktor’s heart. He broke the skin, and blindingly white blood began to trickle out of the scratches. He attempted to yank the seed out by its roots, but it was too interconnected with Viktor’s body. Viktor had watched him pull out hundreds of weeds over their years together, but this was one that he could not, no matter how hard he tried. Yuuri tried to kiss the spot like Viktor had, to no avail. Viktor embraced him tenderly, barely able to hold him in his weakened state, and Yuuri buried his face into his shoulder with a wail.   
Viktor could feel his feet beginning to anchor into the earth.   
~~~~~~~~~~~  
Yuuri could feel Viktor’s flesh becoming solid, could see his ever-present glow ebbing away from his skin. His panic consumed his soul like a fire. This wasn’t meant to happen. This couldn’t be happening. (( He )) was the one who had been cursed, not Viktor. How could Viktor do this? Give up his immortality for somebody like him?  
“Please, please no,” he whimpered. Viktor kissed him sweetly. His skin was becoming rough and morphing into a silver-taupe color. His legs melted together, and roots stretched out from his feet and pushed through the dirt. Viktor’s hair fused and joined the the rest of the long shingles of bark now covering his body. In a sickly, unnatural movement, his arms snapped up and transformed into twisting branches that thrust up towards the sky. More branches rapidly burst from Viktor’s neck and head with a crack that rang out, and Yuuri screamed. Makkachin started barking wildly from within the cottage. Viktor still had a smile on his face, and his aquamarine eyes glimmered in the shadows of the dying sunlight.   
He lowered his eyelids and his face became frozen in place, rigid and wooden. The twigs budded and then unfurled into large, star-shaped maple leaves in a canopy above. Yuuri banged his fists on the trunk of the tree until his hands were torn up and bleeding. He yelled Viktor’s name for so long that his voice completely left him and he was just mouthing it, and he cried so hard that he fell onto his hands and knees and dry heaved.   
Yuuri stayed there all night, weeping like a child. He clung to Viktor until the rays of the morning sun shone through the trees. Yuuri heard a rustling of leaves, and with a futile hope that Viktor would be sitting in a branch unharmed, he glanced up. As the sunbeams caressed the tree’s foliage, small golden blooms popped open among the leaves. The light reflected against something shining brightly on one of the branches, and Yuuri squinted up at it. His stomach lurched when he saw the golden band there, constricting the branch tightly and causing it to bulge on either side. One of the flowers floated down, bathed in the gentle sunbeams. Yuuri caught it in his hands. He held it close to his chest. A helianthemum.

**Author's Note:**

> Me? Finally posting something? It's crazy, isn't it? Well, I'm finally working on Break a Butterfly again and will have the new chapter out as soon as I can. In the meantime, I hope you enjoy this. <3 Make sure to leave a comment!~


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